Prescription drug therapy is now a standard component of most medical treatments. The volume and growth of prescription drug consumption has increased at record rates over the past decade. The primary drivers for this growth have been (i) an increase in drug usage due to an increasing number of chronic conditions and preventative treatments, (ii) advances in technology and newer drugs, (iii) accelerated FDA drug approvals, (iv) an aging population with a higher consumption rate, and (v) increased insurance and prescription drug coverage.
Once only an elderly or infirm phenomenon, prescription drugs are now being consumed on a regular basis by all age groups. Several chronic conditions and preventative treatments for each age group have made high per capita consumption rates the norm for a majority of Americans. In 2003, 3.4 billion prescriptions were dispensed in the United States, with an average per capita consumption rate of 11.8 prescriptions per person. By 2005, IMS Health reported that this number had grown to 15.4 prescriptions per person. In a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 91% of Americans reported that they take prescription drugs, and more than half said they take prescription drugs regularly.
Despite numerous advances in modern medicine, prescription compliance remains a problem which continues to plague the healthcare industry. A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation has shown that over 70% of Americans either forget to take their medications or don't take them at the right times. There are multiple reasons for this phenomenon including: busy schedules with multiple demands, forgetfulness, an increasingly mobile culture, overestimation of negative side effects, and the cost of the drugs themselves. The most obvious reason may be that people don't seem to remember to take their medications when they don't feel sick.
This failure to comply with prescribed drug treatments results in ineffective drug treatments, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits, which in turn leads to increased health care costs for consumers, insurance companies, and the U.S. government. Prescription drug non-compliance costs society nearly $100 billion a year and leads to an estimated 125,000 deaths, according to statistics cited by the Department of Health and Human Services.
One of the biggest reasons for prescription non-compliance is the lack of interaction between patients and health care providers after drugs are dispensed and patients commence their prescription treatments. A prescription received by a pharmacy may come complete with drug name, dosage, dosing, and indications, but it does not associate dosing with specific times of the day, events, or in relation to other drugs consumed. It is left to the patient to adapt the prescription to his or her daily schedule, manage multiple prescriptions, remember each set of instructions at precise times of the day, and adapt their treatment regimens as new prescriptions are added or terminated. This process becomes much more complicated when patients are prescribed multiple drugs with different dosing regimens such as (i) once in the morning, (ii) every eight hours, (iii) three times a day, (iv) with meals, and (v) to be taken with drug X. Although the instructions and indications are printed on the container, they may be forgotten over the course of weeks and months. In addition, certain patients simply be incapable of adhering to a particular routine or regimen, and require personal compliance assistance from an individual such as a mother, spouse, sibling, or other caregiver. In these cases, those additional individuals need real-time access to the user's prescription instructions in order to assist them in taking their medications. Lastly, in cases where users sustain adverse reactions to a prescription dose taken, the user's prescription source data, used in conjunction with a real-time notification system, may be a critical step in getting the user timely, targeted health care support or emergency medical care.
There is currently a huge need for a system cheap and easy enough for the average consumer to use which can help users manage their prescription therapies and increase their rate of prescription compliance. Online, wireless, and other technologies which have high rates of consumer penetration are now routinely being used in numerous applications. U.S. wireless penetration currently exceeds 65%, and a majority of Americans use mobile phones throughout the day for business and personal use. Wireless data technologies such as wireless short message service (SMS), enhanced message service (EMS), multi-media message service (MMS), wireless application protocol (WAP), binary runtime environment for wireless (BREW), session initiation protocol (SIP), and instant messaging (IM) make efficient use of a wireless carrier's network and are available to all mobile phone users with a basic handset.
The present invention outlines a prescription therapy management and compliance system which uses standard technologies available to all consumers. Several health care entities such as pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), health insurance companies or health plans, and electronic health record (EHR) providers maintain primary databases which store user-specific prescription information and HIPAA Protected Health Information (PHI). Although important, this information on its own is of no use from a drug management or compliance perspective. The proposed invention aggregates, customizes, formats, and otherwise uses the data stored on these primary databases in order to provide users with a real-time prescription management account, wireless dosing reminders, and other compliance features using standard technologies such as mobile phones and wireless devices. The use of accessible consumer technologies makes it easy for the average consumer to incorporate the system into their daily routine, thereby achieving the system's end goals of enhancing prescription therapy management and increasing prescription compliance.